Before the Dawn
by Double0Agent23
Summary: Bella left, leaving behind several broken hearts. When identical twins come to town, they take a chance at trying to heal the gaping void she left behind. But will their pasts destroy all they have done?


Summary: Twins Carrie and Kari have moved to Forks with their mother to escape a dark past. Will these girls fill the void Bella Swan has left behind?

Carrie = care-ree

Kari = car-ree

To my long lost friend, Lys, who is one of the best minds that I have ever had the pleasure of writing and brainstorming with. Lys, this one is for you.

I do not own Twilight, I do not completely own Kari (only a percentage), and I do not get paid for making this stuff up. If I did, life would be so much easier. :)

Before the Dawn

Chapter One: After the Fall Out

"Damn, who knew we had so much crap!" Emerald green eyes were narrowed in irritation as a young girl of 17 carried yet another box filled with god only knew what up the flight of stairs for the hundredth time. Moving across the country from the high-class 3600 square ft house in Michigan to the 2000 square ft house in bum fuck Forks Washington was a major pain in the ass. But the irritation didn't even come close to the relief that flowed through her veins at moving away from the city. She and her family had escaped it all and were now happy and safely hidden away, never to be found again. She shook the thoughts out of her head as she set the box down on the floor of her new bedroom with a _THUMP_. She pushed the dark chocolate brown bangs out of her eyes before wiping the sweat off of her brow.

The queen sized canopy bed was already set up with the mattress and the bed frame; the comforter and sheets were still packed away in one of the boxes and with her luck would be in the last box she would unpack. The pine wood dresser with a tall set of drawers was set up on the side wall, next to the window that looked out over the front yard. Her bookshelf and desk were set up against the wall with the door. She had a mountain of boxes littering her room… something that she definitely wasn't looking forward to going through. The walls of her room were an off white eggshell color with rich, dark green curtains hiding the arched window. The floors were made out of cherry wood; whether the wood was real or not, she couldn't say.

"First of all sis, you are the one with all the crap. And second, you have so much of it because you're a pack rat." Kari Piwowar's identical twin sister walked into the room behind her with even another box and not so gracefully dropped it on the floor.

"I'm not a pack rat, Carrie." Her denial caused Carrie to laughed as she placed her hands on her hips, her own rich green eyes scanned the room that was stuffed with more boxes than a thanksgiving turkey.

"Yes, you are Kari. Have you seen how many boxes you have versus how many I have?" Kari scowled at the floor, knowing that her sister was right. So what if she kept everything? As long as she had a place for it, she was happy.

"And you own too little. You always have to borrow my stuff."

"Why get it myself if I can just get it from you?" Carrie smirked as she walked over to the desk and sat down in the chair. "I have the feeling that you hate this place already."

"What can I say? I miss Michigan. It was perfect. You could actually see the seasons change there. Here? It is just rain all the time. Except for winter when it snows all the time. I did the research on the way here."

"How tech savvy you are…" Carrie studied her twin. "At least it is a new start." Kari rolled her eyes

"Oh sure. Starting from scratch our senior year of high school is really ideal." Kari glared at her sister. "Stop being so damn positive. It's going to rub off on me."

"Sorry. Habit."

"Carrie. . . Do you think mom will be okay?" Kari asked concerned. The main reason the entire Piwowar family had moved out of Ann Aubor, Michigan and into Forks, Washington was because of their father. The twin's father was abusive and had a bad history, and while their parents had been divorced for a long time, that had not stopped the man from abusing their mother or them whenever he felt like. After he was arrested for the attempted and almost successful murder of some dealer, he was sent to prison. However, the girls and their mother knew that they had to leave. None of them were about to stay and risk the man's connections coming after them.

"I think she might be able to actually relax on her days off rather than watching out the window for his beat-up blue Chevy." Carrie shifted to her feet, clearly uncomfortable about talking on the subject. "Maybe one day we can relax too." Kari snorted.

"Right. That will be the day." The two girls stood in the room for a moment. It was a mutual understanding between them that they would do whatever it took to make their mother happy before they even attempted to put themselves first. They had this twin connection thing; they didn't know how exactly it worked but it was their. The twins could feel each other. More like an energy and presence rather than hearing thoughts. They knew how the other one was feeling, if one was in danger the other one would know, if one was ill so was the other one. They practically did everything together, yet they each had their own friends and their own groups back in Michigan. Suddenly, the girls heard a strange sound. Their mother's laughter was floating up from outside through the open window. Kari sent her sister a questioning look. Laughter? What the hell was going on? Their mother had not laughed in years; had she finally had a mental breakdown?

Without a second thought the twins raced downstairs to find out what the hell was going on. They flew out the front door, down the stairs and out onto the concrete driveway where, standing next to their mother, was a man in a red flannel shirt who looked slightly older than their mother's 38 years. He was around 5'9", with a full head of salt and papered dark brown hair and a mustache to match. His skin color indicated some outdoor activity as did his well toned physique. He wore construction-type water proof boots, and dark jeans indicating he had been around this area for quite some time.

When their mother's laugh came to an end, she looked up with the same emerald green eyes as the twins to see her daughters standing in the doorway of their new home. A cross of worry, panic and confusion was painted on their faces. Smiling, she gestured for the girls to come over. "Oh girls, perfect timing! Kari, Carrie, I'd like you to meet our new neighbor Charlie Swan."

"Hello ladies. It's very nice to meet both of you." He stepped forward and held out his hand to shake. Kari nodded and took his hand firmly. For some reason she found herself liking the man. There was something in the way that he stood(shoulders back, hands tucked into his pockets, a slightly wider than usual balanced stance), that spoke of power and authority. She liked that. It would comfort her mother to have a strong support around.

"It's nice to meet you too, Mr. Swan." Kari replied with a small smile.

"Please, call me Charlie." Charlie grinned as he then shook Carrie's hand. Like her twin, the teen found the man to be easily like-able and a good candidate for a friend for their mother. Unless he got too nosey about their past. "So girls, will you be attending school tomorrow?" Charlie asked.

"Yes sir. We'll be seniors," Carrie answered with a small smile. Charlie nodded, and his eyes seemed to darken slightly, sending Kari a confused message. Was be bothered that they were nearly full grown? Why was this news upsetting? Charlie recovered quickly though, beaming them a smile.

"That's great. You must be looking forward to going off to school next year. So many colleges, so many opportunities out there. . . "

"Actually, we were planning on staying local for a little while longer. After all, we wouldn't want to leave our mother alone in a big house after only living in a small town for a year." Kari put an arm around her mother's waist and hugged her. "We don't want her to be alone."

"Well, there is nothing wrong with going to the community college. Also, there are some pretty decent universities out in Port Angeles and Seattle. The drive is not too far either way. I have a bunch of brochures at the house I could give you girls if you would like." His eyes seemed to darken again ever so slightly. "To be honest I have a daughter who started her senior year this year but… She came to live out here for a while last year after her mother had remarried. She decided to move back in with her mother who is in Florida after she had a terrible fight with some boy who…" He sighed and ran his hand through his hair, shrugging in defeat. "We planned on her going to school out here but… over the summer things just didn't work out."

"That would be lovely, Charlie." Amy Piwowar looked very pleased and almost relaxed. "The girls have really been worried about college application deadlines and college options out here. Kari wanted to go to medical school at U of M but now that we are in another state. . . "

"The out of state fees are terrible." He nodded in agreement. "That was why my daughter was looking more locally at first. Then she got the crazy idea that she wanted to go to Alaska."

"Yet she moved to Florida," Kari rolled her eyes. "That was a stupid move, no offense to your daughter." The man chuckled.

"I agree that it was not the best decision for her, but she just had to go." It was evident in Charlie's voice that his daughter leaving had really wounded him. And just from what she had seen of the man so far, Kari was pretty sure that she was going to hate his daughter. Carrie probably felt the same way. "I'll drop them off sometime this week."

"That would be wonderful, thank you." Amy glanced at the house and then back at Charlie. "I'd offer you to come in for a drink but seeing as I have no idea what box the dishes are in-" He laughed.  
>"Don't worry about it. I don't want to get in the way. I better let you all unpack."<p>

"Thanks Charlie. It was really nice meeting you." Amy held her hand out and they shook hands again.

"The pleasure was all mine." He nodded towards the girls. "You kids stay out of trouble."

"Always," the twins replied in unison. They waved good-bye to him before they went, grabbed the last of the boxes off of the truck and hauled them inside. The girls excused themselves to go upstairs and start on their rooms together. First was Kari's. "Why do I get the feeling that this senior year is going to be far worse than I have ever imagined?"

"Aw come on, it's not going to be that bad." Kari glared at Carrie as she began to open the first of her many boxes. "Hey, it could always be worse," she teased. "You could be a fish in a blender." Kari turned around to shoot another glare at her twin. "What? You think you have it bad but, as you can clearly see, you don't!" Kari looked away and tried so hard to keep from smiling. "I know you want to smile. Just let it out!" The smile broke free as Kari yelled as loud as she could.

"AHH! You know you are so irritating at times!"

"Yes, but you feel better now don't you?" Kari rolled her eyes as she proceeded to continue unpacking with her sister's help. Little did the twins know what lay ahead for them would be a much more terrifying journey.

xXxXxXx

"Can I drive now?" Carrie asked, using the annoying tone that she knew her sister hated.

"No." Kari answered, trying hard to resist the urge to snap at her sister as she manually shifted gears.

"Why the hell not?" Carrie whined.

"Because you would destroy our car." Kari calmly answered her sister as they drove to school. Their mother had given the girls a car as a birthday present under the guise that they 'share it'. Unfortunately, it was a stick shift, and Carrie had no clue how to drive one properly. Therefore, Kari got to drive the new black 04-mustang GT convertible to school on a regular basis. And everywhere else in general for that matter. "Do you know how much transmissions cost now-a-days? Three or four GRAND, Carrie. I don't know about you, but I'd rather not spend 3k fixing something that you broke."

"But it's our damn car which means it is half mine!" Kari took a deep breath to try to calm the waves of irritation that were building up inside her. There was a moment of silence and Kari nearly sighed in relief before Carrie broke the silence again. "How about I drive home?"

"What do you not understand about the word NO?"

"All of it." Kari groaned and nearly screamed out in joy when she saw the small sign of Forks High in the distance. Carrie smirked as an idea hit her.

"I bet you twenty bucks that I won't crash the transmission." Kari nearly groaned. She hated when Carrie used her betting side. She knew that Kari couldn't turn down a bet.

"OK, fine. If it will get you to shut the hell up, then fine. I bet twenty dollars on your destruction." Kari lifted her free hand to shake Carrie's eagerly outstretched one. Relief flooded through her as Kari pulled into a parking space and turned off the car. Most of the student cars were there already, and most of them looked a lot older then the one that she herself had just drove. The students who were walking across the lawn paused to stare at their car, some bowing their heads to whisper in each other's ears. "Great. Nothing like small town gossip to get the day rolling." The only car that seemed to outshine 'theirs' was a shiny new Volvo a couple of lots down next to a red convertible classic.

"Do you think we're going to fit in?" Carrie asked as they got their new messenger bags out of the car. Kari rolled her eyes as she slammed the trunk closed.

"No Carrie. I believe that we'll be ridiculed, tarred and feathered and then burned at the stake." Carrie rolled her eyes at Kari's sarcastic comment. "Seriously, do you think I care? It's senior year, it is too late to change."

"You could try to put in a little bit of effort into this, you know."

"Why bother? It's not like we are going to be here for more than a year as it is. Making new friends would be a waste knowing we are not even going to the same college next fall."

The hallways of Forks High School were nothing like the city schools that the girls had been previously used to. The hallways at their old schools had been so overly crowded that you had to slide yourself between bodies before you could go anywhere, and there was the usual sex, drinking, drugs all done in plain sight; not to mention the metal detectors at every entrance and exit plus the security cameras to make sure you didn't sneak off campus. If you were to arrive at school any later than 8:10, you were screwed on getting to class on time. And that meant you had an automatic detention, no matter how nice the teacher was.

This new school seemed to be the complete opposite. It was all open, looking more like a lodging complex than a school with each classroom as a cottage and Kari already felt suffocated. Small town to her meant people with small minds, and small minds equaled a shit load of gossip that she just did not want to deal with.

Carrie frowned at her sister, feeling the irritation radiating off of her. "Kari, it's not that bad. Look at it this way, at least _he_ isn't here."

Kari turned and glared death at her sister. "I thought we'd agreed that we'd both never talk about that again."

"That's my point."

"Whatever. You do what you want and I'll do what I want. Got it? I'm the older sister so what I say goes!" Carrie folded her arms across her chest, her eyes narrowing in a challenge.

"Well then oh wise one, where the hell is your first class?"

"Do I look psychic to you? I said wiser, not a mind reader." Carrie shook her head as she started to walk down the hallway, leaving her sister to follow in her wake.

xXxXxXx

"Alright, class. Welcome back. I hope you had a good summer." The class groaned in unison at the thought of being in school again. The teacher chuckled slightly. "Now, before I go over the Syllabus, I'm going to warn you that-" His words were cut off when the door opened and a tall brunette walked in. The class went silent as they watched her walk slowly towards the desk. "Can I help you? You should know that I don't tolerate tardiness in this classroom."

"I'm sorry sir, but I just transferred here and I got lost." Kari insisted, trying to sound nice despite the irritation that she felt. If she were to get a detention on the first day, then today would indeed be on her top 10 worst days ever list. The teacher's face went from looking stern to very welcoming.

Ah, I see. You're Kari Piwowar then, I assume?" Kari nodded as she handed him the slip of paper to sign. After the teacher signed it, he pointed to the back of the room where a couple of seats sat next to each other. "You will be next to Edward Cullen. Edward would you raise you hand please? There, sit right next to him, and welcome to American Government. " A very pale arm rose, and Kari nodded to the teacher out of respect before walking quietly to her seat. The boy who raised his hand was seated to her left, so after taking a deep calming breath to calm the butterflies in her stomach she glanced over. The boy was the palest human she had ever seen. His bright copper hair hung shaggily down to his eyes, but not quite in them. He sat very stiffly, moving very little. Hell, it didn't even look like he was breathing!

Edward Cullen, huh? His head snapped over to look at her as if she had called out his name, and their eyes locked for a moment before he looked away in disinterest; his eyes looked to be an intense golden brown. Kari frowned as she turned her attention back to the teacher.

"As I was saying, you all have a project due at the end of the month." There were loud protests before the teacher raised his hand to silence the room. "You may have partners, but I do not want the groups larger than two people." Kari groaned inwardly, her head falling forward slightly before looking back at the teacher. Was he serious? "I have already picked your partner, and will announce who they are at the end of the hour." It didn't take long for Mr. Lee (as Kari found out his name) to get through the syllabus, and thus the moment that they were all waiting for.

"Kari Piwowar," Kari's head shot up from the doodle that she had been working on to look at the teacher. "You will partner with Mr. Cullen." There were muted gasps of awe and jealousy making Kari want to gag. This was the start of it. Great. "Mr. Cullen, I expect to see some of Ms. Piwowar's work in the project, not just yours." Edward nodded slightly.

"Yes, Mr. Lee." The teacher continued to call out the names, and then allowed the class to talk for the rest of the period. Needless to say, it took all about three seconds for her seat to get surrounded by students, and for the students to bombard her with questions. The strange thing about it was that not one student was close to Edward Cullen. It was like he had this force field around him so that no one could get close. Growling at the group around herself, Kari put on a smile and answered all of their questions to the best of her ability without exploding on them. By the end of the hour, Kari had gotten countless requests from people to sit with during the coming lunch hour; all to which, she politely refused.

"I'm sitting with my sister. If you want to sit with _us_, then it doesn't matter to me." Kari sighed as the bell rang, and quickly said goodbye to all of the kids leaving. She leaned back into her seat for a moment, not seeming to care that she only had four more minutes to get to class. Her hand came up and held the choker around her neck. The image of it was so vivid that it had caught Edward's attention.

Where did this Kari girl get the crystal heart on her choker? It looked exactly like the one that he himself had given Bella not a two months before. As much as he hated to do it, he listened in on her thoughts.

_God, it's about time the flipping cattle left. It's like they've never seen a transfer student before. I hope Carrie gets as much hassle as I do. God if the next five classes are going to be like then I'm going to go mad…_

Edward watched her as he continued to talk to herself in her head. It was strange, every time she said 'Carrie' an image came to mind of herself, with softer eyes, blonde highlighted hair and long loose curls. Was she having flashbacks? No, he put it together that it must be her twin. The two looked almost identical; that was the only logical answer. Her chestnut brown hair had dark undertones, and was styled short, with it being short in the back and longer in the front and pencil straight bangs that almost hid her eyes. He noticed then that Kari had very sharp green eyes.

"That's brilliant."

Kari's thoughts came to a screeching halt as her head snapped over to look at him. The comment was so sudden that it took her a moment to understand what he had said.

"What?" Edward bit down a chuckle and pointed to the little doodle of her sister holding a bleeding rose on the corner of her copy of the syllabus.

"You're doodle. You are very talented." Kari's eyes narrowed in suspicion but couldn't keep the blush of pride off of her face.

"Thanks I guess. It's not that big of a deal." Edward chuckled slightly, and stood up before grabbing his books.

"Maybe not to you. You might want to head to class. Mrs. Smith doesn't treat tardy students as kindly as Mr. Lee does." Green eyes looked up at him confused. Once again, he pointed to the schedule that had fallen out of her back pocket. Before she was able to, he bent down and picked it up handing it to her. "Luckily for you, I have Pre calculus next as well. Would you like me to show you where it is?" He smiled gently, and it took a moment for Kari to respond.

"I'd appreciate it. Thank you." She gathered her books and took her schedule from his pale hand before following him out of the now empty room. Maybe today wouldn't be so bad after all. Kari let herself smile as she made her way down the plain hallways of Forks High school.

TBC in Chapter 2: I Told You So


End file.
